Published March 21, 2014

Dr. Robert Hanser, coordinator of the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s criminal
justice program, and Dr. Mike Gomila, adjunct professor of criminal justice at ULM,
recently published an innovative textbook titled “Multiculturalism and the Criminal
Justice System.”

The publisher, Pearson/Prentice Hall, describes the text as the “contemporary text
that addresses diversity and multicultural issues in the policing, judicial, correctional,
and juvenile justice segments of the criminal justice system. Unlike other texts on
similar areas of study, this text is comprehensive in its portrayal of various minority
groups, addressing the issues from a systemic view of criminal justice.”

Hanser

Hanser explained, “This text has a unique approach because it weaves into the chapters
issues related to globalization and the impact that this has on diversity in the United
States. The means by which international events have affected these diverse groups
was an aspect that we did not want to ignore.”

“Multiculturalism and the Criminal Justice System” examines perspectives from the
practitioner, offender, and victim vantage point. This approach provides both breadth
and depth on issues pertaining to multiculturalism and diversity.

“This text is quite multidisciplinary in approach,” said Gomila. “In order to fully
address the various forms of diversity that can be found in the criminal justice system,
we had to draw from a multitude of reference works that included such disciplines
as psychology, counseling, history, gerontology, religious studies, and gender studies."

"The fusion of these various elements resulted in a very comprehensive text that addresses
issues relevant to today’s multicultural society.”

Hanser concluded by saying, “It was our goal to present the various aspects of diversity
and diverse populations, juxtaposed with the international developments that affect
this country."

"In doing this, we also wanted to address the entire criminal justice system rather
than just one segment of that system. This gives the text a great deal of utility
in criminal justice courses.”